An economist who said “the stupidity of the American voter” helped pass the complex federal health care law has agreed to finish his work on Vermont’s health insurance systems for free, a top state official said Wednesday.

Three state lawmakers on Monday urged the administration of Gov. Peter Shumlin to sever ties with a Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist who was shown on video saying it was the “stupidity of the American voter” that helped create the Affordable Care Act.

The state is reducing ties to the contractor that helped design its website that was supposed to be a marketplace where people could compare and buy insurance plans through President Barack Obama’s landmark health care law but remains flawed and short of being fully functional, a Vermont official announced Monday.

The vendor operating Connecticut’s health insurance marketplace call center took responsibility Monday for an employee leaving behind a backpack containing personal information of hundreds of clients outside a downtown Hartford deli, saying it was an inadvertent mistake and the worker had no nefarious plans for the data.